As is generally well known, in order to remove fillets from both sides of a whole fish, the fish is placed in a horizontal position and the fillet knife is used to enter the end of the fish. The person then guides the knife in close proximity to and along the bone skeleton towards the other end to remove one fillet from the bone skeleton. The fish is then flipped over and the process is repeated to remove the other fillet. Moving the knife further from the skeleton results in wasted meat while contact between the knife and the skeleton generally leaves bone particles in the fillet.
Accordingly, the process requires considerable skill and concentration in order to reduce meat waste, eliminate the presence of bone particles and provide a visually appealing product. The process is particularly frustrating to a novice or to a person who has not yet obtained sufficient experience, while professionals often desire to reduce the time needed to fillet the whole fish.
Electrically operated fillet or carving knives, which use a pair of reciprocating blades, somewhat improve the process of filleting the fish but do not alleviate all the difficulties. Examples of such electric knives are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,779 to Underthun, U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,425 to Kahle and U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,030 to Ruston, Sr.
As it is further known, the electrically operated knives are employed to carve and slice cooked meets such as baked ham, roast turkey, beef roasts and the like. While reducing the time necessary to carve and slice meats, the quality of the effort and, particularly, the thickness uniformity of the sliced meet is governed by the person performing such carving and slicing. And as a result, the thickness of the sliced meat can vary from slice to slice.